What Is The BBC Charge?

What Is The BBC Charge And How Will It Affect Us?

As most of you are probably aware, the current law states that any household watching or recording live TV is required to have a television license. A fee of £145.50 a year is required for a colour television license per household and all funds go towards funding the BBC’s TV, Radio and online services. However, it looks like things are set to change!

The BBC made £4 billion in 2013/14 so it’s slightly difficult to see why the company would feel the need to change its regulations. However the current TV license does not cover catch up TV services. As a result of this the current license is set to be scrapped, and in its place will be a bill imposed on every home, even those without a television, with an extra charge added on for BBC services. So just to confirm, the fee will be obligatory for everyone! And yes, we will be paying more than we are now, although it is not yet known by how much.

It’s not certain what the fees are going to be just yet, however, when the system was introduced in Germany the charge was set at £156 for public service channels and was collected in monthly installments which could be beneficial to some of us, but typically the charge will continually go up each year.

So what’s the overall purpose of all of this I hear you ask? Well the BBC is basically trying to catch out those of us who currently avoid paying television tax by solely watching our favourite TV programmes on catch up or online. It will also future-proof the BBC since it reaffirms the concept that its contribution to public service broadcasting ought to be funded by a universal tax.

There’s no need to panic just yet though guys! MP’s believe that the earliest the new regulations could be enforced is 2026! So those of you without a TV in your household still have a good few years of freedom left to enjoy.

The opinion seems to be split on this one! On the one hand, we could end up paying a larger overall fee, which is never a good thing for us money savers. Then on the other hand, we do close the loophole on people trying to dodge the tax, which is still a big problem, and consequently getting fined up to £1000! The good news is I’m following these plans closely so I’ll keep you all updated on the latest.

And what about the people like me who don’t use any TV services at all? Do we still have to pay? I have a TV as I watch everything on Netflix through an xbox, I don’t watch TV live and I don’t watch any catch up channels at all